JP2004157650A - Vending machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a vending machine capable of vending articles at a discount only to its members with simple structure. <P>SOLUTION: The vending machine is provided with cash throw-in slots 2 and 3, a card reader 7, and a vending machine main control part 1, a control part 72 of the card reader 7, a setting part 77 for discount amounts of specified articles. It sends a card-based money reception signal corresponding to an article discount amount to the vending machine main control part 1 when the validity of discount qualification of a member card 11 inserted into the card reader 7 is confirmed. The vending machine main control part vends an article according to the sum of the card-based money reception signal and a money reception signal corresponding to the cash thrown in the cash throw-in slots 2 and 4. When the article purchase is canceled, the main control part 1 sends a return signal for the card-based money reception based upon the article discount amount to the card reader control part 72 and returns cash corresponding to the amount of the thrown-in cash. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a vending machine capable of selling goods at a discount only to specific members.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In order to qualify only certain users to purchase products, the card records the owner's qualification signal on the card, reads this qualification signal, and in some cases, provides an automatic qualification function that provides discounted products to specific qualifications A vending machine has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1). In addition, a vending machine capable of using a specific card to perform discount sales to a specific user based on discount application data recorded therein has been proposed (for example, Patent Document 2).
[0003]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-8-147538 (pages 4 to 5, FIG. 4)
[Patent Document 2]
JP-A-10-27277 (page 2-3, FIG. 3)
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
In the vending machine described in Patent Document 1 described above, the control systems must correspond to each other in accordance with the qualification. In the vending machine described in Patent Document 2, discount application data is stored in a card, It is necessary to record the amount data to be discounted, and the control system must be complicated accordingly. In general, it takes a lot of development time to make the vending machine's main control unit capable of complex discount sales, and the price is high. In addition, it is often necessary to apply it to existing vending machines. Need remodeling.
[0005]
It is an object of the present invention to provide a vending machine that can sell products at a discount only to members with a simple configuration, instead of the vending machine that has been conventionally proposed as described above.
[0006]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to the present invention, there is provided a cash slot, a card reader, and a vending machine main control unit, wherein the control unit of the card reader has a setting unit for a product discount amount, When the validity of the discount qualification of the membership card inserted into the reader is confirmed, a card deposit signal corresponding to the product discount amount is sent to the vending machine main control unit, and the vending machine main control unit sends the card deposit signal Sales are performed in accordance with the sum of the deposit signal corresponding to the cash inserted from the cash slot, and when the product purchase is canceled, the main control unit controls the card reader to send a refund signal for card payment based on the product discount amount. And return cash equivalent to the amount of cash input.
[0007]
It is preferable that the control unit of the card reader includes a CPU, a program unit, and a setting unit.
[0008]
Advantageously, the setting section of the control section of the card reader can set a plurality of discount amounts.
[0009]
In the present invention, a member card is issued for employees belonging to a certain company, users of a certain store and those who are registered in a membership system managed by the store, etc., and a company code, a store code, It means data in which data such as member ID, expiration date or issue date is recorded.
[0010]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to examples shown in the drawings.
[0011]
FIG. 1a is a configuration view of the entire vending machine of the present invention, and FIG. 1b is a configuration diagram of the card reader. 1 is a main control unit of a vending machine, 2 is a coin slot, 3 is a coin discriminator, 4 is a bill slot, 5 is a bill discriminator, 6 is a return lever, 7 is a card reader, 8 is a refund slot, 9 Is a product selection button, and 10 is a lamp for displaying available products. The card reader 7 has a magnetic head unit 71 and a control unit 72 connected to the magnetic head unit 71 as shown in FIG. 1B. The magnetic head unit 71 slides the card along the groove 73 to transfer the magnetic data contained in the card. It can be read. The control unit 72 includes an AD converter 74 connected to the magnetic head unit 71, a CPU 75 connected to the AD converter 74, a program unit 76 connected to the CPU 75, and a setting unit 77 also connected to the CPU 75. The analog signal output from the magnetic head unit 71 as a result of the insertion is converted into a digital signal by the AD converter 74, and based on the discount set value set by the setting unit 77 according to a program pre-installed in the program unit 76. The arithmetic processing is performed by the CPU 75. The CPU 75 is connected to the vending machine main controller 1. It is desirable that the card reader 7 has a reader / writer interface for a normal prepaid card. That is, since most vending machines in recent years can usually handle prepaid cards, the card reader used in the present invention is provided with an interface function of a reader / writer for the prepaid card, so that the existing card reader can be used. It is advantageous when applied to a vending machine.
[0012]
Next, the operation of the vending machine of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
[0013]
When the cash 12 or 13 is inserted into the coin slot 2 or the bill slot 4 of the vending machine from the standby state, the authenticity is discriminated by the coin discriminating machine 3 or the bill discriminating machine 5, respectively. The signal is sent to the vending machine main controller 1 as a signal (step S1). On the other hand, when the member card 11 is inserted into the groove 73 of the magnetic head unit 71 of the card reader 7 and is slid (step S2), the affiliated company code, the member store code, the member ID, the expiration date, Information such as the issue date is read by the magnetic head unit 71 (steps S3 and S4), and the analog signal is converted to a digital signal by the AD converter 74, sent to the CPU 75, and is qualified to receive the product discount. Is confirmed. In the CPU 75, based on the discount set amount set in the setting unit 77, the discount set amount is sent to the main control unit 1 as if it were received from a prepaid card in accordance with a program incorporated in the program unit 76. It is sent as a deposit signal (step S5). For example, if the discount amount is set at 10 yen, a 10 yen card payment signal is sent assuming that 10 yen has been received from the card. The main controller 1 regards this signal as a deposit from the card, and adds the card deposit signal and a deposit signal based on cash input (step S6). For example, when cash of 110 yen is input for a product of 120 yen, it is assumed that 120 yen has been paid. If it is determined in steps S3 and S4 that the inserted member card 11 is not qualified to receive the discount, the member card 11 is ejected, and the indication "this card cannot be used" is NG. Made with lamps.
[0014]
Next, when the product is selected without canceling (step S7) and one of the product selection buttons 9 is pressed (step S8), the selection signal corresponds to the sum of the deposit amount, that is, the discount amount, in the main control unit 1. The main control unit 1 issues a sales signal (Step S9), comparing the sum of the received card amount and the inserted cash amount with each other. If the received amount is equal to or larger than the price of the selected commodity. Here, the selling operation is started (step S10), and when there is change, the change is paid out in cash (step S11), and the sales counting process is performed because there is income from cash and card payment (step S12). , And enters a standby state.
[0015]
If the customer wants to cancel the purchase after the payment, the user operates the return lever 6. The vending machine main controller 1 recognizes that the cancellation has been requested (step S7), checks whether or not the card has been received (step S13). If the card has been received as described above, this card has been received. Is sent to the CPU 75 of the card reader 7 (step S14). The CPU 75 updates the balance of the card according to a program incorporated in the program section 76 by a calculation process of returning the amount corresponding to the discount amount to the card (step S15). On the other hand, the main controller 1 pays out the cash deposit to the refund port 8 (step S16), and enters a standby state. That is, for a user who is qualified to receive discount sales, by inserting a membership card, the card reader 7 behaves as if there is a payment corresponding to the discount amount from the prepaid card, and the vending machine owner receives a card payment signal. It is sent to the control unit 1 and the vending machine main control unit 1 also performs processing assuming that payment has been made from a prepaid card, thereby performing discount sales. If the contract is canceled in the middle, the main control unit 1 processes the refund of the amount corresponding to the discount amount as a refund to the prepaid card based on the previous card payment signal, and only the cash portion is used as the actual refund. It is to pay out. By doing so, users who can receive discount sales can obtain products at discounted prices simply by inserting a card and inserting the reduced amount of cash, while the vending machine side Because the discount amount is processed using a prepaid card, it is possible that users will abuse the discount system and try to obtain the amount equivalent to the discount amount in cash by canceling beforehand Can be prevented.
[0016]
In the above-described flowchart, the operation is performed in such a manner that cash is inserted and then a card is presented, but an operation of presenting a card and then inserting cash may be performed.
[0017]
A predetermined discount amount is set in the setting unit of the control unit of the card reader 7, but it is possible to set a plurality of set values in order to change the discount amount depending on the membership or the fixed amount. You may.
[0018]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, a card reader is used, an amount corresponding to the discount amount is allocated to the card, and only by controlling the card reader as if there was a deposit by a pseudo card, a general vending machine can be used. On the other hand, it is possible to obtain a vending machine that can perform discount sales very easily without requiring special measures for control, and it is extremely advantageous for the vending machine management side to promote sales. Means can be provided.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1A is an overall configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is a detailed configuration diagram of a card reader thereof.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 vending machine main controller 2 coin slot 3 coin discriminator 4 bill slot 5 bill discriminator 6 return lever 7 card reader 8 repayment slot 9 product selection button 10 lamp 11 membership card 12 coin 13 bill 71 magnetic head unit 72 Card reader controller 73 Magnetic head unit groove 74 AD converter 75 CPU
76 Program section 77 Setting section

Claims (3)

It has a cash slot, a card reader, and a vending machine main controller, and the controller of the card reader has a setting section for a predetermined product discount amount, and the validity of discount qualification of the member card inserted in the card reader is provided. When it is confirmed that the card has been purchased, the vending machine main controller sends a card deposit signal corresponding to the product discount amount, and the vending machine main controller sends the card deposit signal and the deposit corresponding to the cash inserted from the cash slot. When the purchase is canceled, the main control unit sends a card refund signal based on the product discount amount to the card reader control unit, and the amount corresponding to the inserted cash. A vending machine characterized by returning cash. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the control unit of the card reader includes a CPU, a program unit, and a setting unit. 3. The vending machine according to claim 1, wherein the setting unit of the control unit of the card reader can set a plurality of discount amounts.

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